Maracas and musical shakers are often used in the rhythm sections of orchestras and other musical groups to establish rhythm in musical performances of all kinds. The maraca generally comprises a spherically shaped dried and hollowed gourd containing dried seeds or other pellets that produces a "rattle" sound when it is shaken.
Another musical shaker is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,973 to White. The White musical shaker comprises a generally tubular, hollow casing having a reduced geometry at one end and which is filled with popcorn kernels or other sound generating kernels, pellets or the like that generate musical or other tones when shaken by the user.
Another musical shaker, this one having an egg shape, is presently sold by Daito Incorporated under the registered trademark CHICKEN SHAKE. The device is fabricated in a manner similar to toy plastic eggs, i.e., it is formed by injection molding such that a seam is formed between two egg shape members joined around the widest portion of the shell. There are a number of very undesirable problems associated with this particular design. First, the egg shaped device has a tendency to break along the seam when the instrument is dropped. The expense associated with continually replacing a cracked device may become prohibitive. Second, children playing with the device may be injured if it cracks because they may eat the fill inside the device or cut themselves with the jagged edges of the cracked device. Third, a relatively large amount of adhesive is required for assembly because the seam is located at the widest section of the device. Fourth, assembly of the device takes an excessive amount of time because during assembly the excess adhesive oozing from the seam must be cleaned or scraped away from the outer surface of the shell. Thus, there is a clear need for a musical shaker, and particularly an egg shaped musical shaker which overcomes the above-mentioned problems.